The East Area Rapist (EAR)

The Original Night Stalker (ONS), a.k.a. the East Area Rapist (EAR), the Diamond Knot Killer, and the Golden State Killer, is according to some still alive. When caught, more than 50 rape cases and 12 murders will be solved. The authorities have his DNA. These crimes are solvable.

When I met the daughter of one of his victims, Debbi Domingo, we discussed how relatively unknown the East Area Rapist (EAR) and his crimes are compared to some serial killers and mass murderers. And with so many crimes, where do you start reading up on the East Area Rapist (EAR)? I guess that there is no definitive report everyone picks up first. I checked some books and browsed on the web. Questions popped up in my head that I didn’t see elsewhere (yet).

First Impressions

The first two questions that popped up for me where:

Did any of the women get a STD?

Did any of the women get pregnant?

The women refer to lubricants, penis size, and the rapist placing (or not) his weight on their bodies but they do not mention condoms. In one crime kit found in a backyard, I saw mentioned a mask and a flash light but no condoms. As careful as he planned attacks he wasn’t careful with himself. With every unprotected attack he opened himself up to a STD. Why? So far I haven’t found the answers but I might come across it later in other books or articles.

Reading further certain keywords started to stand out:

projection

manipulation

transferred responsibility

revenge sex

Compartmentalizing information

Maybe everything I post here has already been checked. However, I don’t know that. I can hear you say “drop what you have and just read this book, listen to that podcast” etc. But that doesn’t work for me. When I dig into a cold case I stick to one article, file, or book at a time. It helps me compartmentalize the information and to keep track of my own questions. As I read on, I find answers to those questions or not. That’s how I filter information and by searching for answers in my pace, I learn.

Transferred responsibility

I started thinking about the East Area Rapist (EAR)’s father. Was he absent, deceased, did he just leave, or was he unknown? It connects with immobilizing the husbands for me. Yes, that serves as safety net but it feels as if it was about emasculating them. It seemed to say that by immobilizing the men:

everything that happened to the wives was their fault. They are to blame, they are inadequate and not the East Area Rapist (EAR): transferred responsibility.

the East Area Rapist (EAR) is making a statement about a parent/guardian who didn’t do enough to maybe protect him from abuse: transferred responsibility but only this time we must research who is projected here. A good guess would be his mother.

With an absent father, the East Area Rapist (EAR) may have been exposed to abuse. That abuse could have been:

verbal (being yelled at without cause)

financially (being forced to take a job or steal because basic necessities were denied)

emotionally (being forced to take on responsibilities that are usually the father’s as the son slowly takes over the father’s place)

physically which could be the ultimate “ersatz” of the son taking the place of the father in the bedroom.

The anger that the East Area Rapist (EAR) has may not stem from loathing women in general. As far as we know, he didn’t attack prostitutes. He attacked wives, middle-class career women, young women, and even girls. His anger may stem from loathing direct relatives who were supposed to care for him. He didn’t attack in brothels or backyard alleys. He went into upper-middle class neighbourhoods to stalk, haunt, prowl, attack, and murder.

The manipulation he felt based on anger and abandonment gets projected onto the victims as a proof of his manliness: he is a stronger man than his father.

I read that the East Area Rapist (EAR) said sentences such as: “I don’t want to do this anymore” and “It scares me, Mommy.” Maybe that was acting. Maybe that was genuine release.

Now think about the small items he stole. One earring from a pair. He leaves an incomplete pair rendered useless due to separation. Now the onus is on the victim: does she discard the remaining earring or does it become a keepsake? Is this somehow a reflection on the state of the parents’ marriage?

I am positive that the authorities have done a profile of this man. It should have background information about the environment in which he grew up. I have not read about it yet but am sure I will as I keep reading.

Two last points:

I wonder what results we would have if we tried to find the family instead of trying to find the East Area Rapist (EAR)

properly preserved items should be checked with the M-Vac

I will keep reading about the East Area Rapist (EAR) and see if I can answer my own questions. I have added the mindmap I made when I started reading about the EAR.

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Thank you, Alice de Sturler